Borg Rules Guide
Gray's Digital Edition Borg Rules Guide Please Note: The last version of the Borg rules guide by Decipher was Version 1.6. '' '''Gray's Digital Edition Borg Rules Guide' is a modified version of Decipher's 1.6. However, it has been updated for Voyager and The Borg expansions. It is the only supplement to Gray's Digital Edition Rule Book, and supports many of the same links to expanded information. It is meant as a companion guide, and therefore has been shortened (under the assumption that the player is already familiar with the gameplay and rules established there). '' INTRODUCTION ''The Borg, introduced in the Star Trek: First Contact expansion in 1997, represented the first fully playable affiliation added to the The Star Trek™ Customizable Card Game™ since its premiere in 1994. And they were, to use Q’s words, not like anything you’d ever seen. 'Borg 101' ''Facilities, Reporting, and Quadrant Restrictions All Borg affiliation cards (except assimilated counterparts) have a ∆ icon and are native to the Delta Quadrant. Thus, they follow normal quadrant rules for seeding facilities and reporting cards. Because there are no missions containing the Borg Affiliation icon, both ❖Borg Outpost (the basic outpost for the Borg affiliation) and ✶Unicomplex (which fuctions similar to other affiliation's Headquarters) seed (or plays) at any ∆ space mission with no affiliation icons. ❖Transwarp Hub (the other outpost facility for Borg) seeds or plays at any ∆ nebula (regardless of affiliation icons). ❖Borg Outposts may be built at a planet they’ve assimilated (even a homeworld) "where you have a Borg ENGINEER", as specified on the card. Although you may build ❖Borg Outposts on the Alpha or Gamma quadrant spacelines in this manner, you may not report cards for duty at such outposts (because the outpost is not native to the quadrant). However, such an outpost may perform other appropriate functions such as repairing ships or extending SHIELDS . The game text of Borg Cube (also Queen’s Borg Cube and Locutus’ Borg Cube) allows your Borg personnel to report aboard the ship in any quadrant. Thus, a Borg Cube functions as a “mobile outpost” for Borg personnel. This is a primary method for bringing assimilated counterparts into play, as their lack of a ∆ icon will not allow them to report at your Borg Outposts. Likewise, your Borg Sphere may report directly aboard a Borg Cube in any quadrant. Collective Vs. Hive All of your Borg affiliation cards in play make up your Borg ''collective. All of your Borg affilaition cards at one spaceline location (or time location), whether in space, on a planet, aboard a ships or facility, etc., make up a Borg hive. Some cards may affect your entire collective; others may affect all your Borg in one hive. In a Borg vs. Borg game, each player has a collective, and both may have hives at the same location. ''Borg Personnel Most Borg Personnel cards represent drones.'' A drone's lore lists its "Identification" (which identifies it as a particular type of drone), a description of its "Task" and its "Biological Distinctiveness" (species of origin; however, the species of Borg drones are irrelevant to the Borg). Borg drones list no gender; gender is irrelevant to the Borg. ✶Borg Queen, assimilated counterparts such as Locutus of Borg, and former Borg of non-Borg Affiliations such as Icheb, are not drones. A Borg is considered to be both Borg species and its species of origin. Gender is irrelevant. Borg drones list no gender; and while ✶Borg Queen and counterparts have gender, Borg pers onnel are not affected by gender-related game text on non-B org cards (e.g., Male's Love Interest, Matriarchal Society, Alien Groupie, Arachnia). Borg personnel have no classifications, though several of the personnel types appear as skills. Needed skills, including personnel types, which do not appear on Borg Personnel cards may be obtained by assimilation of opposing personnel or by using ✶Borg Queen' selectible skill. Regular skills (including ✶Borg Queen's selected skill) may be shared throughout a Borg hive using the Interlink Drone's skill. Your Borg may also share CUNNING using the Unity Drone's skill. Borg special skills provide many functions supplied by Equipment cards for other affiliations (ex: STRENGTH enhancement for personnel, RANGE and SHIELDS enhancement for ships). They may also use equipment cards, subject to certain limitations (Borg Affiliation may not use hand weapons for any purpose). Each Borg drone has an icon identifying which subcommand it is assinged to within the Borg collective. - Communication - Navigation - Defense Subcommand icons are used primarily to staff Borg ships, but also have other uses indicated by cards. Some Borg, such as ✶Borg Queen, have more than one subcommand icon, but may each contribute only one icon at a time to meet ship staffing requirements unless otherwise specified. (Seven of Nine is an exception; her game text allows her to apply all three of her subcommand icons to staffing a ship.) ''Borg Affiliation Ships Each Borg ship has a bonus point box. These bonus points do not contribute to a Borg player’s score, but are earned by your non-Borg opponent whenever he destroys your Borg ship in battle (and only in battle). Borg-affiliation ships are not affected by Plasma Fire, Warp Core Breach, Isabella, Into The Breach, Hugh, or the second function of Anti-Matter Spread. (They are affected normally by the first function of Anti-Matter Spread, like any other ship.) Borg Cubes (including Queen’s Borg Cube and Locutus’ Borg Cube) allow "Borg Use Only" Equipment cards (but not other Equipment cards) to report aboard the ship. Cooperation Borg don’t mix or cooperate with cards of other affiliations (they are not compatible with them). A player using Borg Affiliation cards may not stock any non-Borg Affiliation personnel, ships, or facilities in their game deck or any side decks, including former Borg such as One, or a Mission II with a built-in non-Borg outpost (even if they do not use that function of the card). If a player has Borg and non-Borg cards present together (The Naked Truth, Frame of Mind, etc.), normal house arrest rules apply. (A card bearing the “Borg Use Only” icon in its title bar can be stocked in your deck and used only when playing the Borg affiliation.) See playing Borg Objectives Unlike other affiliations, Borg never attempt missions. Instead, a Borg player uses Objective cards to accomplish goals such as destroying a ship, scouting a space location, or assimilating a planet. Some Borg objectives score points; others confer different benefits, such as disrupting the timeline (e.g., Stop First Contact) When you are playing Borg and you have an uncompleted "Borg Use Only" Objective card face up in play, this is defined as your current objective. You are limited to one "Borg Use Only" current objective at a time. You may have any number of non-"Borg Use Only" objectives in play at a time. (You may also have other "Borg Use Only" cards such as incidents in play.) When you play (or activate) a "Borg Use Only" Objective card, you must immediately target an appropriate location, ship, personnel, etc., as specified by the objective. Objectives may target solved or unsolved mission locations. The objective then allows your Borg to scout the ship or location, initiate battle, abduct a target, etc. See scouting, scouting locations, scouting ships. Your Borg must complete scouting (if an objective involves scouting) and meet any other listed requirements (such as having Borg present at the location) before you may probe (usually at the end of your next turn) to determine your current objective’s outcome and score its points, if any. See probing Scoring points A Borg player scores points, both positive and negative, only from "Borg Use Only" cards and cards which specify that they affect Borg. When you or your Borg are confronted with any other card which is point-related, play out the card but ignore the points. If that card presents a choice, you must choose an option which is not point-related, if possible. Points you score from completing "Borg Use Only" objectives are non-bonus points. Any other points you score are bonus points (for example, points from the "Borg Use Only" Add Distinctiveness incident or the negative points from Balancing Act). Assimilation You may assimilate planets or your opponent’s personnel and ships by using Objective and other cards that allow assimilation. Also see abduction Borg Away Team Restrictions Your Borg may not form Away Teams (either on a planet or on an opponent’s ship or facility) except when counter-attacking or when allowed by your current objective or another card (e.g., Emergency Transporter Armbands, Near-Warp Transport, Iconian Gateway, Devidian Door). Borg Battle Restrictions The Borg conduct battle in the same way as all other affiliations, subject to a few special considerations: *Each of your ships, facilities or Away Teams that wishes to initiate an attack must have a Defense icon personnel present. If the facility is a Nor, the Defense icon personnel must be in Ops. (The Borg may not use a “leader” to initiate battle unless that leader also has a Defense icon.) *Borg forces may not initiate battle except when counter-attacking or when allowed or required by your current objective (e.g., Assimilate Counterpart, Eliminate Starship) or another card (e.g., Conundrum, The Issue Is Patriotism). When allowed to initiate battle, they may attack any affiliation including opposing Borg. *If your opponent attacks you, during your next turn you may initiate one or more counter-attacks against any or all of your opponent’s ships, Away Teams, facilities, crews (if you can beam through the SHIELDS) etc. which are still at the location of the opponent’s attack, regardless of the form of the original attack. When you counter-attack, no Defense icon personnel is required and no affiliation restrictions apply (no current objective or other card is needed to allow the counter-attack). ''Personnel Battles All normal rules for personnel battle apply to Borg. Some cards allow you to abduct and/or assimilate personnel during personal combat. See abduction and assimilation When your Talon Drone (Three of Nineteen) stuns an adversary in personal combat, it may abduct and assimilate (as a drone) the adversary (it cannot abduct without assimilating). Both the Talon Drone and the adversary are removed from the battle and may beam back to your ship. *When the target of your Assimilate Counterpart objective is engaged in combat by any of your Borg, that Borg may immediately abduct the target, regardless of their relative STRENGTHs. Both that Borg and the target are removed from the battle and may beam back to your ship. Abduction is not required – the engagement may instead proceed normally with one of the combatants being stunned or mortally wounded (however, your Talon Drone may not use its skill to abduct and assimilate the stunned target, because a target for Assimilate Counterpart may not be assimilated as a drone). The target is not assimilated as a counterpart until the objec tive is completed with a successful probe. *After you determine the winner of the overall battle, if you have a Talon Drone in the battle who is not stunned or mortally wounded, you may play one or more copies of Assimilation Tubules to allow the Talon Drone to assimilate (as drones) mortally wounded adversaries. They are not abducted and may not beam back until they are “unstopped.” ''Ship Battles'' While you may normally select only one target in a ship battle (either for the initial attack or returning fire), Borg-affiliation ships with a Multiplexor Drone (Nine of Seventeen) aboard are allowed to fire WEAPONS against multiple targets in the same battle, if a current objective or other card allows targeting of multiple ships (no objective currently allows this, but Gowron of Borg’s special skill will allow it), if returning fire or if counter-attacking. For example, if your opponent attacked any of your forces on the previous turn, and he has two ships and an outpost at the location of that attack, your Borg Cube with a Multiplexor Drone and two other Defense icon Borg aboard (total of 3 Defense icons) may target both ships and the outpost in a single battle, with 24 WEAPONS against each of the three targets. This expands the fire (or return fire) portion of the battle into two or more engagements. Each engagement has only one target, but it is possible to have multiple cards firing upon that target. Compute separate ATTACK and DEFENSE totals for each engagement, repeatedly using the appropriate bonuses from each player’s current tactic each time. In other words, each player is limited to one current tactic for the battle, but it w ill apply to each engagement. Apply damage only after you have determined the outcomes (hits and direct hits) for all engagements. If your multiplexed Borg ship scores a hit (or direct hit) against two or more targets and your current tactic has a symbol, use that card as the damage marker for one of those targets (your choice) and treat that symbol as for damage to each remaining target. All damage markers drawn from your side deck must be placed on the hit targets randomly. The Eliminate Starship objective allows you to battle the targeted ship. If you destroy it in battle, you must immediately probe to complete the objective (you do not wait until the end of your turn). See probing ''Other Rules and Clarifications'' Deck Construction *Your seed cards may include up to six sites. Although there are no Borg Affiliation Nors, you may still wish to seed sites on your opponent’s Nor. *When using a Battle Bridge Side Deck, some Tactic cards (such as Borg Cutting Beam) have a “Borg Use Only” icon. However, you may use any Tactic card in your Battle Bridge side deck. The Seed Phases *The Transwarp Network Gateway, a seedable "Borg Use Only" Doorway card, specifies that it seeds during the outpost phase. *All normal dilemma phase seeding rules apply. If you reveal your own mis-seeded card in a scouting attempt, you may not complete any objective targeting that mission. Play Phase *Borg do not commandeer (they assimilate instead).